Curious places in or facts about Britain; the quirky, off-beat or unusual.
Which anniversaries will be marked in Britain in 2024? Below is a selection of more than 80 noteworthy anniversaries for your interest and amusement, from the Millennium Bug to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Each one is on someone’s calendar for 2024 – and each one offers a fascinating insight into Britain’s story. This is […]
Anniversaries in 2024 Read More »
We set off with friends David and Cecile (and Hamish the dog) to visit Swaledale’s corpse trail. It is one of their favourite walks and the views are terrific. You may know of Yorkshire’s Swaledale, but I suppose I had better explain what a corpse trail is: so here goes. Once upon a very long
Swaledale meadows and the corpse way Read More »
Which anniversaries were marked in Britain in 2023? Below is a selection of fifty or so noteworthy occasions for your interest and amusement, from the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 to the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Each one was on someone’s calendar for 2023 – and each one offers an insight into Britain’s story.Â
Anniversaries in 2023 Read More »
Bourton-on-the-Water is one of Britain’s honeypot villages. Situated in the Cotswolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that straddles five counties (Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire), Bourton-on-the-Water’s main claim to fame is that it is a very pretty village surrounded by lots of other very pretty villages. Perhaps ‘honeypot’ is an archaic term
Bourton-on-the-Water, model village Read More »
A guest post by author, Anne Clare In spite of its name, ‘The Pig War’ didn’t have much to do with farm animals. Rather, the unfortunate demise of a pig who ventured into the wrong garden in 1859 almost led to an armed conflict between Britain and the United States.  As the pig was just the
Which anniversaries are being marked in Britain in 2022? Below is a selection of more than sixty noteworthy occasions for you. Each one will be on someone’s calendar for 2022 – and each one offers an insight into Britain’s story. A Bit About Britain usually only highlights significant anniversaries – centenaries, half centuries and quarter
Anniversaries, 2022 Read More »
The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, to give the institution its full name, is almost nine centuries old and said to be England’s oldest charitable body. Never heard of it? Neither had I – until reading about it in Ian Marchant’s delightful book, ‘The Longest Crawl’. This is an account of
The Hospital of St Cross Read More »
The Sussex village of Wilmington lies about 6 miles north west of Eastbourne. Marked out on the side of nearby Windover Hill, just to the south of the village, you will find Wilmington’s Giant, or the Long Man of Wilmington as he’s generally known, a mysterious 235’ high figure of a man. Actually, the figure
Wilmington’s Giant Read More »
Which anniversaries will be marked in Britain in 2021? Here is a selection of noteworthy events and birthdays for you. Each one will be on someone’s calendar for 2021 – and each one offers a little insight into Britain’s story. Scroll through to spot those occasions that may have slipped your mind, or click/tap on
Anniversaries, 2021 Read More »
Just published and available from Amazon – A Bit About Britain’s High Days and Holidays. High Days and Holidays are special occasions, celebrations, or commemorations. They occur throughout the year, some wanted, some not, some remembered more than others. In days gone by, the passing year was marked by seasonal or religious feast days of
High Days and Holidays Read More »
This is Cross Bones Graveyard, surely one of the saddest places in London. Its story belongs within a wider narrative about poverty and prostitution, an important aspect of the two-thousand year history of the Borough of Southwark. Just an unfashionable step from busy Bankside in Redcross Way, Cross Bones is part of a very old
Which anniversaries are being marked in Britain in 2020? Here is a selection of noteworthy events and birthdays for you. You can be sure that each one will be on someone’s calendar for 2020 – and each one offers an insight into Britain’s story. A Bit About Britain only highlights significant anniversaries – centenaries, half
Anniversaries, 2020 Read More »
On the theme of how to enjoy London for free, or on a limited budget, let’s think about walking. Shanks’ pony is often the best way to see any city and London is particularly rewarding in this regard. Not only can you take in some of the famous sites for nothing, but you’ll also often
Free London – take a walk from Westminster Read More »
The small south coast town of Gosport is an interesting, rather than a pretty, place. Optimistic residents may believe it was once known as ‘God’s port’, though the Oxford Dictionary of Place Names’ more prosaic and likely explanation is that the name derives from ‘Goose port’. What we do know is that Gosport developed as
Some corner of a foreign field that is forever Turkey Read More »
